The hospitality industry sees many people in its complex structure. From
seasonal guests to career professionals, hotels have many moving parts.
Like any well-maintained machine, they are occasionally going to run into
issues. The hospitality industry not only welcomes an influx of guests due
to environmental circumstances, but they receive eager new employees
looking for seasonal work. At Padgett-Beale, these seasonal employment
opportunities come with several cybersecurity risks and concerns such as
onboarding/offboarding procedures, a modified version of the Secure
Computer user course, and the assignment of responsibilities of different
roles.
Analysis
Onboarding for employers and employees alike bring chances to learn
about one another in many ways. For employers, this gives them a chance
to learn about their candidates as well as delivering safe and reliable
business practice information. Consistency is key when training new
employees. It’s important to keep background check requirements and
vetting processes the same regardless of roles or duties (Bonderud, 2016)
By managers doing this, it reinforces unbiased or overlooked occurrences
in the onboarding process. Additionally, when it comes to offboarding,
management needs to establish a well thought-out and secure plan of
action for employees departing the company. Mainly, management should
address digital and informational assets such as IDs, laptops, keys,
uniforms, company credit cards, and company issued mobile phones.
(Lucid Content Team, N/D) Additionally, management should review with
employees items such as non-disclosure agreements (NDA) and other
official Padgett-Beale documentation before leaving.
After reviewing the Secure Computer User course, management may want
to tweak the course into smaller sessions depending on the role of the
employee. For example, someone who works at the front desk interacts
with guests frequently throughout the day. This can be in the form of a
phone call or in-person. A front desk worker may not benefit from
learning about malware and antivirus as much as someone who handles
the network infrastructure as Padgett-Beale. The front desk worker will
need to be pay extra attention to a section such as security on social
networking sites or securing email communications. These are topics that
they will utilize frequently. Additionally, this could save training costs and
resources for the company. (Accenture, 2019)
Finally, the assignment of roles and responsibilities need to be defined for
management and employees alike. Threat actors can compromise a
company by becoming new employees. A lot of potential information is
shared amongst guests and employees. Information as credit card
information, schedules, guest employment information, and addresses are
frequently and openly shared for various purposes. Duties such as night
audit, housekeeping attendants, and valet allow the opportunity to enter
personal spaces all throughout the day and night. (Medina, 2018)
Management, should strive to keep roles and responsibilities rigid to
prevent potential bad actors from accessing important guest and company
information. Cyber incidents can be very costly to not only finances, but
to public reputation and company resources too
Summary
d d d d d d d d d d d In conclusion, Padgett-Beale and its management can
demonstrate strong leadership by properly educating their seasonal
employees on reliable and safe cybersecurity practices. These practices
extend to all the various roles and responsibilities of their employees.
Furthermore, the hiring managers should develop a modified version of
the Secure Computer user course to educate staff about various topics
discussing cybersecurity and information assurance. These modified
versions of the course would be tailor suited to the different jobs
performed at the hotel with regards to their responsibilities. Cybersecurity
incidents can be expensive, but they don’t have to be with proper vetting
and training to new and long-time employees.
References
Accenture. (2019) “The Cost of Cybercrime.” Accenture.
https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-96/Accenture-2019-Cost-of-
Cybercrime-Study-Final.pdf
Bonderud, Douglas. (2016) “Seasonal Employee Security Risks: Present
Danger, Proactive Defense.” Security Intelligence.
https://securityintelligence.com/seasonal-employee-security-risks-present-
danger-proactive-defense/
Lucid Content Team. (N/D) “The Offboarding Process: How to Transition
Employees Smoothly.” Lucidchart. https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/what-
is-offboarding-in-human-resources
Media, Kerry. (2018) “10 Popular Seasonal Jobs In Hospitality.”
Hcareers. https://www.hcareers.com/article/job-search-tips/10-popular-
seasonal-jobs-in-hospitality
